In fact, you can trace its beginnings to radio-powered phones made by companies like AT&T way back in the 1940s.

We traced the cellphone’s lineage to give you an idea how we got to where we are today.

What’s really impressive is how quickly phone technology has advanced over the last four or five years. Innovation is accelerating exponentially. Very exciting.

In the mid-1940s, mobile telephone service (MTS) devices started popping up. They let you make phone calls over radio waves, but they only worked over a limited geographical area. Sorry, no long-distance calls. Eventually, the technology improved and radio phones were installed in vehicles. This became pretty common well into the 1990s.

AP/Business Insider

The next big challenge for phone makers was to create a handheld device, not something clunky that had to be installed in your car. Motorola won the handheld race. It demonstrated the first handheld cellular phone, the Motorola DynaTAC, in 1973.

AP/Business Insider

Most of those early handhelds from the late 1970s and 1980s ran on so-called “1G” analog networks. The technology wasn’t perfect, and it was relatively easy for someone to hack your signal and eavesdrop on calls. 1G networks no longer exist.

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By the late 1980s and early 1990s, carriers began transitioning to “2G” digital networks. These networks provided higher quality calls and were more secure. Variations of 2G networks with faster data speeds and clearer calls still exist today. 2G networks were also important because they allowed you to send text messages and transmit data.

ed yourdon via flickr/Business Insider

Nokia was the king of these 2G phones in the late 90s and early 2000s. You probably had a phone that looked like one of these.